Recently I posted a snippet about the possibility of the HD Media format war being decided by a video game console. Well, both the PS3 and the XBox HD-DVD player are now available (yeah right!) and ready to do their thing. Early reviews are in on the movie playing capabilities of each device, and...

Honestly, it's like watching the worst horse race ever. The bell rings, the gates fly open, and... two old gray mares meander out onto the track and munch down some grass from the infield. (ZZZZZZZZZZZ) Must have dozed off there. Where was I? Right. Both systems are plagued by problems in the media playback department.

The XBox player (which I gave the nod to earlier) is limited by a lack of HDMI on it's mother console. That shouldn't be a huge surprise to anyone, but here's the rub. The player itself is capable of 1080p output, but component cables, which the XBox 360 uses for it's HD connection are only capable of outputting 1080i. To get the player to display true 1080p, you have to connect it through...drum roll please... VGA!

I didn't think that was even possible, and apparently neither did many major HDTV manufacturers, whose VGA ports only run in standard def. Don't get me wrong, 1080i looks great, but it's obvious the XBox setup is less than ideal. Now, if you want to buy one, and "hack" it up to your PC, that's another story.

As for the PS3... it features HDMI in spades, and supports HD movie playback in all it's forms, progressive or interlaced (game playback is another matter). The problem here is the dreaded user interface. According to a review over at PC World, it's difficult to switch from game playing to movies. If a game disc is taken out, and a movie inserted, the system doesn't automatically play it. The user must navigate through several menus using, not a standard remote, but... drum roll please... the Sixaxis Controller!

The game paddle features no simple play or stop buttons, but rather features an on screen controller, requiring you to engage the system with either the directional pad, or analog stick. It sounds like tedium ad nauseam. Too bad nobody thought of fast forwarding using the tilt sensitivity. That would be fun!

Well, it's a slow start for our contenders, and so far neither are having the impact on the format war they could've. After reading the reviews today, I admit, I am leaning slightly in the other direction. Except for the remote, which is due out next month, the PS3's problems are mostly software based. They could be corrected down the line. Unfortunately no amount of firmware updatin' is going to cause your XBox 360 to sprout an HDMI port. Advantage- Sony by a nose.

Link to Sony Review
Link to XBox HD Player Review